standards/176683: catman pages shall be stored in /var (/usr/local/var, /var/local)

[Torsten Eichstädt]

>Number:         176683
>Category:       standards
>Synopsis:       catman pages shall be stored in /var (/usr/local/var,/var/local)
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    freebsd-standards
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Wed Mar 06 12:00:00 UTC 2013
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Torsten Eichstädt
>Release:        9.1-RELEASE (PCBSD-9.1-RELEASE)
>Organization:
>Environment:
FreeBSD paul-lifebook 9.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 9.1-RELEASE #0: Tue Jan 29 15:02:50 EST 2013     root at avenger:/usr/obj/pcbsd-build64/fbsd-source/src-patched/sys/GENERIC  amd64

>Description:
I'd like to request to change the default location of preformatted catman pages to an own subdirectory (supposed /var/catman and /var/local/catman) and not beside the unformatted manpages under /usr/share/man (usr/local/man).

Rationale: The catman pages are variable content, in contrast to the unformatted man pages.  The current default location complicates the configuration of automatic indexers, e.g. desktop search engines, because the user has to specify many subdirectories under the standard locations (only the man* folders).
Specifying only /usr/share/man and /usr/local/man would index duplicate content.

Furthermore, when a new application is installed, it can create a new man* subdirectory, which does not get indexed until the indexer's configuration is adjusted.

Separating the catman page's location would easily solve this limitation.

Sincerely,
    Torsten Eichstädt
>How-To-Repeat:

>Fix:
I'm wondering if preformatted (catman) manpages are still beeing used at all.  All the catman* folders on my system are empty...
So maybe this is not really a problem?

At least I can mount the root filesystem read-only, a simple method to enhance system security.  Then the 'man' utility is fully functional.

>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: